136: Living biological maze

Inside the main tower’s command room.

The enormous light screen was divided into dozens of perspectives, displaying real-time images and data transmitted by the legion's vanguard, flanks, airspace, and elemental scouts.

Everything was under control.

The distance was steadily shortening.

One thousand five hundred kilometers.

One thousand kilometers.

Five hundred kilometers.

The scenery ahead began to change dramatically.

The land was no longer a flat mycelial mat.

Instead, there were countless thick, python-like biomass pipelines.

These pipelines were semi-transparent, with a rich, emerald-glowing life source essence flowing within them.

They resembled a living vascular network, intertwined and covering the entire area.

The energy in the air was as thick as liquid, carrying a strong exclusionary consciousness.

Eric’s elemental spirits were the first to encounter an obstacle.

Earth spirits attempting to burrow underground were forcibly repelled and squeezed out by the biological force field emanating from the pipeline network.

Wind spirits scouting in the air felt their movements sluggish, as if they had fallen into an invisible, viscous swamp.

“The energy field is interfering with elemental aggregation.”

Eric’s voice came through the communication, carrying a hint of gravity.

“This area… is like a living, giant organ.”

The robots controlled by Spirit Eye, acting as the vanguard, began to engage the Imperial Guards protecting the area.

The bio-constructs here had a more unified form, their armor gleamed with a deep metallic luster, and their movements were coordinated as if they were a single entity.

They no longer charged mindlessly but relied on the biological pipelines for efficient coordinated defense and counterattacks.

Energy beams, corrosive spores, and physical impacts were precisely fired from various nodes of the pipeline network.

The robot legion suppressed them with absolute firepower.

Explosive flashes continuously flickered, illuminating the emerald vascular network in alternating light and shadow.

Debris splattered everywhere but was quickly absorbed and decomposed by the wriggling mycelial mat and pipelines, as if digested by the very earth itself.

“They are rapidly recycling resources using the environment; attack efficiency is lower than expected.”

Spirit Eye calmly analyzed, then issued an order: “Change tactics! Prioritize destroying energy nodes!”

Following her command.

The muzzles of the Doomsday Judgment Squad adjusted slightly.

Dozens of bright white plasma beams, like precise surgical scalpels, bypassed the sturdy Imperial Guards and directly blasted key nodes on several of the thickest biological pipelines.

Boom!

Boom! Boom!

The hit pipelines suddenly swelled, then exploded like ruptured water sacs!

The stored life source essence gushed out like a bursting flood, turning into a thick green mist in the air.

The surrounding mycelial mat withered instantly, and the movements of the Imperial Guards, who relied on the pipeline’s energy support, showed obvious sluggishness and confusion.

Effective!

The legion immediately adjusted its attack focus, concentrating firepower to destroy the most intensely pulsating biological pipelines.

However, just as they were steadily advancing, gradually tearing through the defenses of this living domain… a sudden change occurred!

The entire ground suddenly shook!

It wasn’t an explosion, but a tremor from deep within the earth’s crust, like a giant beast turning over.

From all the ruptured sections of pipelines that were gushing life source essence, countless even thicker, more active fleshy tentacles suddenly stretched out!

These tentacles wildly writhed, not attacking, but… linking with each other!

Centered on the legion’s vanguard, all the biological pipelines and mycelial mats on the ground within dozens of kilometers came alive!

They intertwined, merged, and ascended at an unprecedented speed!

Like coral growing thousands of times faster!

A colossal living labyrinth, composed of pure biomass and metallic skeletons, rose from the ground within minutes!

The labyrinth walls were hundreds of meters high, their surfaces covered with wriggling blood vessels and shimmering energy crystals, instantly segmenting and encircling tens of thousands of robot troops that had penetrated the deepest!

“Warning! Environment drastically changed! Spatial structure forcibly modified! We have lost stable contact with three vanguard formations!”

Spirit Eye’s voice, for the first time, became urgent.

From a high-altitude view, a massive, ugly, yet strangely beautiful emerald living labyrinth appeared on the formerly flat ground.

It was like a giant trap, swallowing a large chunk of the shining silver-gray metallic torrent.

Inside the labyrinth, communications were severely disrupted, and energy perception was chaotic.

The segmented and surrounded robot forces were forced into fighting individually.

And in the deep shadows of the labyrinth’s passages, more numerous and dangerous predators were quietly awakening.

Brian, in the main tower, watched the large areas on the light screen marked with lost signals or intense close-quarters combat, his eyes turning completely cold.

He realized that what they faced was not a simple monster.

But an ecological-level enemy with extremely high intelligence and the ability to manipulate its own domain at will.

“Order subsequent units to stop advancing!”

“All Doomsday Judgment Squads, increase altitude, lock onto the labyrinth’s energy core!”

“Eric, prepare for large-scale elemental purification!”

Brian’s voice was like ice.

“Since it wants to play! Then we’ll overturn its chessboard, along with itself.”

“Received!” “Alright!”

Both responded simultaneously.

Deep within the living labyrinth.

Signals were intermittent, light and shadow fragmented.

The segmented steel formation was mired.

Three vanguard formations, approximately fifty thousand units, were trapped in a cage made of pulsating flesh walls.

The passages were intricate, the flesh walls continuously contracted, and highly corrosive mucus seeped from their surfaces.

The robots’ metal shells hissed as they were corroded.

Aerial views were completely ineffective.

The labyrinth’s top was sealed by intertwined biological pipelines.

Only faint patches of light filtered down.

It was as dark as a submarine canyon.

“sky patroller signal attenuated by 93%, terrain scan failed.”

Spirit Eye’s voice sounded next to the holographic sand table.

Brian stood before the main screen.

His gaze swept over the areas with countless flickering red dots.

Those were the markers of units engaged in fierce combat.

“Spirit Eye, activate Lighthouse Protocol! Eric, prepare for ultra-range spell!”

His voice was steady, cutting through the silence of the command room.

The moment the order was given.

Within the trapped formations, hundreds of iron oath guardians simultaneously halted.

Their heavy shoulder armor unfolded, revealing deeply hidden energy cores.

The next second, dazzling pure white beams of light shot skyward!

Om—

Hundreds of purification beams tore through the labyrinth’s gloom.

Forcibly piercing through the biological pipeline layer at the top!

Briefly opening a channel for contact with the outside world!

“Channel established! Duration, 15 seconds! final judgment, prepare!”

Spirit Eye quickly seized this fleeting window.

It was enough!

Outside.

The floating final judgment group instantly adjusted their muzzles. (Okay, I’ve changed the name, it’s now just final judgment! No more ‘squad’! Twelve units form the final judgment, and a single unit is a ring of judgment!)

“Attack!”

The moment Spirit Eye’s high-pitched command was given.

Six thousand muzzles lit up simultaneously!

Not the destructive Divine Authority Judgment.

But precise, dense point-shooting of an iron oath.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!

Countless bright white plasma beams, like precise piercing needles.

Poured down through the hundreds of holes forcibly opened by the purification beams!

Precisely eliminating the elite predators rampaging through the labyrinth’s passages.

At the same time, the energy at the tip of Eric’s lapis lazuli tower had converged to its peak.

“Area elemental purification, saturation strike!”

He announced calmly.

The tower body shook, and spell fluctuations transcended space!

An invisible elemental ripple rapidly spread out, centered on the labyrinth.

Wherever the ripple passed, the labyrinth’s flesh walls convulsed painfully.

The surface energy crystals instantly dimmed and peeled off.

Large areas of the wriggling vascular network necrotized and withered.

The entire labyrinth seemed to have been thrown into a boiling oil pot.

Inside the labyrinth.

The repair speed of the flesh walls plummeted, and the secretion of corrosive mucus stopped.

The pressure on the trapped robot legion greatly reduced.

“Breakthrough!”

Brian issued the command!

Instantly, the steel torrent inside roared again.

Along the passages temporarily purified by the lighthouse and iron oath.

Towards the only direction—east, the source of the emerald light.

They launched a desperate charge!

The main force of the legion outside began to tear and burn this living cage with heavy firepower along the labyrinth’s outer edge.

Creating a breakthrough opening for their comrades inside.

The living labyrinth violently trembled under the pincer attack.

Like a giant beast stabbed in a vital spot.

But it still stubbornly wriggled and repaired itself.

In the deeper shadows.

A more powerful fluctuation was awakening.